Donald Berwick

Donald M. Berwick (born September 9, 1946) is a former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Prior to his work in the administration, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement a not-for-profit organization.

His mother, Rosalind Fine, was the primary caretaker of Berwick and his two younger brothers until she died from ovarian cancer in 1961.

Because of Fine's efforts to promote the construction of a new elementary school in Moodus, the school's library was named after her when it was built.

Berwick has said that he was motivated by his Jewish upbringing.

“The ethical foundations of Judaism speak to me about being proper stewards of society and the world,” said Berwick.

“It affects my views and reminds us all we are in this together and really have to help each other,” he said.

“I’m worried about the failure to realize progressive issues I care about: healthcare as a human right, poverty and justice.

These issues are under siege in America.”

Berwick graduated from Nathan Hale-Ray High School and went on to obtain his A.B. from Harvard College, where he graduated summa cum laude.

He completed his medical residency in pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston.

Berwick began his career as a pediatrician at Harvard Community Health Plan; in 1983 he became the plan's first Vice President of Quality-of-Care Measurement.

In that position, Berwick investigated quality control measures in other industries such as aeronautics and manufacturing, in order to consider their application in health care settings.

From 1987 to 1991, Berwick was co-founder and Co-Principal Investigator for the National Demonstration Project on Quality Improvement in Health Care, designed to explore opportunities for quality improvement in health care.

Based on this work, Berwick left Harvard Community Health Plan in 1989 and co-founded the IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement).

Berwick is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Health Care Policy in the Department of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

He is also a pediatrician, Adjunct Staff in the Department of Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, and a Consultant in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital.

On July 7, 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Berwick to serve as the Administrator of CMS through a recess appointment.

On April 19, 2010, Berwick was nominated to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the two federal programs.

Berwick said, "20 percent to 30 percent of health spending is 'waste' that yields no benefit to patients, and that some of the needless spending is a result of onerous, archaic regulations enforced by his agency."

Berwick's critics have cited his statements about the need for health care to redistribute resources from the rich to the poor and his favorable statements about the British health service.

They quote Berwick as saying, "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care—the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open."

Berwick said Republicans had "distorted" his meaning when he said, "My point is that someone, like your health insurance company, is going to limit what you can get. That's the way it's set up. The government, unlike many private health insurance plans, is working in the daylight. That's a strength."

For political reasons, the Obama administration didn't want Berwick to defend his past statements on the British health service, spending caps and high-technology care.

An editorial wrote that his policy ideas could cut health care costs.

Conservatives criticized Berwick, based on comments he made about health care being, by definition, redistribution of wealth, rationing care with "our eyes open" and complete lives system.

Berwick advocated cutting health costs by adopting some of the approaches of Great Britain's National Health Services (NHS) and its National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

NICE evaluates the costs and effectiveness of medical therapy that is covered by the NHS as guidance for local authorities to decide what to cover.

Mark McClellan, who served in the Bush administration, also advocated adopting some of NICE's methods.

Conservative critics claim, "NICE decides which healthcare people will get and which they won't."

Philip Klein in The American Spectator dubbed him "Obama's Rationing Man".

The chairman of NICE called these statements "outrageous lies".

Senator John Kerry defended Berwick against "phony assertions" and accused Republicans of trying "to crank up the attack machine and make his nomination a distorted referendum on reform".

On December 2, 2011, he resigned because of heavy Republican opposition to his appointment and his potential inability to win a confirmation vote.

In March 2012 he joined the Center for American Progress as a Senior Fellow.

Berwick grew up in Moodus, Connecticut.

His father, Philip, worked as the town's family doctor.

On June 18, 2013, Berwick declared his candidacy for governor of Massachusetts, but lost the Democratic Party nomination to Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Berwick has studied the management of health care systems, with emphasis on using scientific methods and evidence-based medicine and comparative effectiveness research to improve the tradeoff among quality, safety, and costs.

Among IHI's projects are online courses for health care professionals for reducing Clostridium difficile infections, lowering the number of heart failure readmissions or managing advanced disease and palliative care.